Hero Anand Deverakonda’s film, Highway under the direction of KV Guhan had a direct-to-OTT release on Aha today. Let’s see how it fares.
Story: Vishnu( Anand Deverakonda), a event photographer by profession kick-started road journey along with his friend ( Satya) to cover an event in Bangalore. In the trip, Vishnu crosses paths with a girl named Tulasi ( Manasa Radhakrishna) and a police officer Asha Bhatt( Saiyami Kher). Later, what kind of twists and turns will take place in the proceedings, forms the main USB of the film.
Performances: Though Anand Deverakonda is the main lead, his screen time is less compared to other artists such as Saiyami Kher and the Abhishek Banerjee, who did the psycho killer role. Acting-wise, Anand Deverakonda is yet to improve a lot with his facial expressions.
Hindi actor Abhishek Banerjee just lived in the role as a serial killer and brings depth to the proceedings. But lack of effective presentation of his character comes a minus point.
Actress Saiyami Kher is decent in her key role as a cop and her screen presence is visible in a few scenes. Young beauty Manasa Radhakrishna is cute but her role is not justified properly. Comedian Satya tried to evoke fun in the poorly written role.
Technicalities: Music by Simon K. King registers. His background score elevates a couple of key scenes. Apart from directing the movie, KV Guhan has also handled camera work for the film and his a decent job.
Production design and artwork are not upto the mark. Editing work fails to click. Production values for this limited budget movie are okay.
Analysis: KV Guhan’s idea of making a thriller in the road journey backdrop is not a bad idea but looks like he took things for granted and executed the film on a flat note without any engaging portions. Firstly, if the director is having an idea of making a thriller, he should focus on the elements like logical presentation and gripping screenplay but sadly KV Guhan ignored these aspects due to which the film look like a half-baked thriller.
To summerize, Highway is a thriller that has a decent point but suffers from demerits like lag in the narration and cliched execution. As the film had direct-to-OTT release, it might find takers during this weekend.
Verdict: Filled with speed breakers!
Rating: 2/5
